The Ultimate Test
by Annie Hawkclaw
Summary: Adam and Henry finally meet face to face in a standoff, and the only way Henry can get himself, Jo, and Abe out of it alive is to listen to Adam's demands or risk him letting go of his dead man's switch. In which Adam threatens Henry in an unusual situation that may lead to unexpected consequences.


**The Ultimate Test**

_._

_._

_It's likely that one of us won't be walking out of this room alive... in fact, at this point it's likely that neither of us will._

Henry studied Adam, keeping the gun in his hand steady. He was tall, taller than Henry, with short dark hair to match his deep, seething eyes. His face was square, with a grim looking grin that spoke of a long, hurtful existence. He wore a suit and tie and carried himself with a gait of authority and superiority, like this was how he dressed every day to go out on the town and stalk someone. His arms were long, and the parts of them that weren't covered by the suit sleeves showed deep, angry, red burns. Henry had guessed that this was the mark of his first death from a long time ago.

Those long, scarred arms also held a gun pointed at Henry, but that wasn't what scared him. While Adam's left hand held the gun, his right hand held an even worse trigger, one that, if released, would set off a bomb that would not only destroy them, Henry's home, and Abe's Antiques, but also Jo and Abe, who were unknowingly lounging downstairs, and likely the entire block. As Henry watched the shadowy man holding the trigger, he realized that Adam would not only be willing to level the whole street and kill hundreds to accomplish his goal, but that he would do it with ease and, perhaps, joy. Adam was a man with nothing to lose and everything to gain. This was what Henry feared the most, and it was the most he had been afraid in at least the past hundred years. While Henry himself would survive the blast, everything else important to him would be destroyed in a fiery inferno of death and destruction, which was something that he couldn't even stand to think about right now.

The hour before the stand-off had been unbelievably normal in appearance. Henry and Jo had just gotten off of work and had met Abe in his store. Abe closed the store half an hour early, and the three had gone downstairs to watch T.V., drink coffee and tea, and discuss the day. It had become a weekly thing every Thursday when Jo wasn't working a big case. Abe would tell them a funny story or two, Jo would discuss current events with Henry, and they would all relax and laugh for an hour before going out to eat. It was the most peaceful Henry felt all week, but he could tell that after today, there would be no more normal Thursdays. Henry knew that whatever happened in the next ten minutes would affect the rest of his existence, however long that might be.

Adam stared right into the barrel of Henry's gun and laughed. "You do know that the gun's pointless, right? It's funny. If you pull the trigger, I die and let go of my switch, and the bomb goes off and kills us all anyways. If you make me have to pull the trigger, I'll set of the bomb while you're taking a swim. Either way, we'll both get wet, although none of the people on this block will..."

Adam's voice was different from what Henry had expected. Of course he knew that whenever Adam called him, he used a voice changer, but Adam's real voice was so... plain. Not deep, dark, and contemplating, but light and airy, like the voice of a newscaster joyfully telling the world that hundreds of people were about to be blown up.

Henry looked long and hard at the sadistic man... no, monster, in front of him. "So, what's the point? If you'd just wanted to ruin my life and kill everyone I love, you would have done so already without stopping to talk to me. If you'd just wanted to gloat before you set it off, you would also have done so already. You obviously have... some other motivation, some other endgame. Would you be so kind as to enlighten me of it and spare me the suspense?"

Adam looked at Henry amusedly and chuckled. "But Henry, isn't this all we have to live for?" he said. "A little suspense, a little... danger?"

As he said that, he moved his hand up suddenly like he was about to release the trigger on the detonator. Henry jumped and flinched, anticipating a sudden burst of heat. When nothing happened, Henry stayed quiet as Adam laughed again. Before Henry had been afraid, but now he just looked tired and shaken, a man who had been in one too many painful, heartbreaking situations in his life.

"What do you want from me, Adam?" Plain and simple.

"It's been nice to finally meet you, Henry. I found out about you about a year ago, but I didn't figure out who you were until this fall. Our phone calls were nice, but I couldn't wait to meet you, the great immortal Henry Morgan, in person. I've been so lonely for a while now, Henry, so lonely... " Adam smiled. "By the way, Henry, you really need to get a cell phone after this is all over. It's so hard to contact you sometimes when you're running around with Jo, working a case, investigating dead bodies all day. A cell phone would really simplify things."

Henry cursed himself for not tipping off Jo or Abe in the first place. Ten minutes ago, the home phone had rang in Henry's downstairs lab while the three of them were just starting to relax and drink their tea and coffee. Abe, hoping it was a customer, picked it up before it got to the second ring, but after a moment he handed it over to Henry, looking slightly confused. "It's someone from work with a question for you, Henry" Abe told him as Henry put his ear to the phone.

"I'm a friend from work. If you say or do anything that says otherwise in front of Jo or Abe, I will blow this whole block up before you can say my name."

Henry's blood ran cold.

"Tell both of them that you have to take this call upstairs and will be back in ten minutes. Then walk up the stairs and go into your room. If you do anything to tip them off or aren't upstairs in thirty seconds, I blow this whole place up. Understand?"

Henry silently nodded to himself and turned to face Jo and Abe.

"Now hang up your home phone and tell them you'll call your friend back upstairs. See you soon, Henry." The phone line went dead, a silent emptiness like the feeling in his body.

"I, um... it's Lucas from work with a question about something." Henry reached down and hung up the phone. "I'm going to call him back upstairs... I'll be back down in ten minutes."

He stiffly turned and walked to the stairs, praying he wasn't acting suspicious at all.

Jo laughed. "Alright Henry, just don't let your tea get cold, ok?" As Henry walked up the stairs, he could hear Jo and Abe continue their conversation about an infuriating yet hilarious customer who had walked into Abe's store the other day. Henry hoped that this wouldn't be the last time he heard either of their voices.

As soon as he got out of their range of view, he practically ran up the two flights of stairs to stop Adam from blowing the place up before he could make it. At the last moment Henry remembered that he was still carrying his gun around from when he and Jo were out chasing down yet another criminal, less than an hour ago. He stopped for a second to pull out his gun and carefully opened the door to his bedroom, arm fully extended, barrel pointing at the person Henry knew would be inside. And there he was, the one and only Adam, a gun in one hand, a switch in the other.

At that moment he had been so desperate to make it upstairs within Adam's deadline that he hadn't even thought about secretly tipping of Jo. Perhaps some kind of coded message in his words before he left? Maybe he could have done it in a way that wouldn't have looked suspicious to Adam, only to Jo?

"I know what you're thinking about, Henry... you're upset that you didn't tip Jo or your son off, aren't you?" Adam said.

Henry's expression, for a second, changed from one of fear to one of surprise, and Adam grinned. "I've been around quite a long time Henry... I'm very good at reading people. In the past, it's gotten me out of some tough situations. And don't you worry... I had that possibility covered."

Putting down the gun (because at that point both him and Henry knew it was useless; if Henry did anything to upset him, he would just blow the place up), Adam turned around a black laptop that Henry hadn't noticed until this point. It was a small, sleek laptop that had, apparently, been sitting on his bed for the whole time during their stand-off. It was new and looked like it had just been bought from a store (which it probably had). The laptop's screen showed an aerial view of a familiar scene; on it, Jo and Abe sat around in the downstairs lounge, waiting for Henry to get back. Jo had propped herself up on the couch and was holding her cup of coffee, listening to Abe, who looked like he was right in the middle of a funny story. In fact, now that he was watching the video stream, he could faintly hear their laughter coming from downstairs, completely oblivious to the scene going on two stories above them. Henry could guess that by the camera's position, it had been planted in the corner of the lounge near the ceiling, likely at the top of his bookshelf full of various journals and medical notes.

Henry couldn't stand to look at the camera. He couldn't stand to think about what might happen if he didn't do everything exactly as Adam wanted in the next ten minutes. He couldn't stand to look at his friends and know that their lives, and likely the lives of hundreds, were in his hands now. He couldn't stand to think about Adam releasing the trigger, sending a fiery explosion flowing through his house that would consume everything and everyone in it...

He couldn't stand to think about what his friends would think in their final moments, assuming they even had time to notice what was happening...

So he didn't think about it.

Henry closed his eyes and tried to steady himself. He just had to keep Adam busy, keep him distracted, keep him happy. That was all he could do right now.

Adam's words brought him out of his deep thoughts. "You're probably wondering how I got that camera down there, aren't you?"

Henry hadn't, in fact, even thought about how Adam had managed to set up a camera in his home; his thoughts were solely tuned to _How do I keep Jo and Abe alive?_

Henry nodded anyways, though, to keep Adam talking.

"It was actually harder than I thought it would be. Your son keeps a rather good watch over his keys and always remembers to lock up. Of course I couldn't do anything that would leave a trace, so I waited until the shop and your house were empty, and then I carefully picked the lock and walked right in. Actually, all in all, it wasn't that difficult. I suppose the hardest part of the night was just figuring how to set up the micro-camera... you know how we immortals aren't around the newest technology like we should be. Right, Henry?"

Henry nodded once again.

Adam turned the laptop around and smiled eerily. "I know you're _dying_ to find out why I'm here, aren't you, Henry?" He dragged out the word dying like he had just made a funny joke to himself.

"Yes, please do tell me why." At this point, Henry had to put extra effort in keeping his voice sounding strong and not sounding like he was scared out of his wits.

"Alright. My request isn't actually that hard, Henry. In fact, I think you'll actually like it!"

Adam smiled. Henry knew that whatever he was about to say was making him very happy, or about as happy as a sadistic murderer could be.

"You have to tell Jo your secret."

_"You have to tell her you're immortal."_

Henry actually stepped back in surprise. Of all the things he had expected Adam might say, this definitely wasn't one of them. It was actually just about the complete opposite of what he thought he would say. In fact, it was the only thing he thought he would never hear come out of Adam's mouth.

"Tell Jo about all of _this_? Are you kidding me? You're the one who's been trying to keep our secret from everyone in the first place! You went so far as to murder me to keep it from getting out!" Henry had to keep his voice from raising to a yell. Suddenly he was as angry at Adam as he was afraid of him. As mad as he was at Adam then and there, though, he still had to keep his voice down, because Henry was sure that if he made any loud noises Jo and Abe would notice, and Adam would set off the bomb without any hesitation.

"That was a long time ago, Henry, and I'm saying that as an immortal. Things have changed, and it's time you stopped keeping her in the dark. She's ready to know."

Henry stood there aghast. "Why do you even care if Jo knows about us? What does it matter to you?"

"I have my own personal reasons for that, none of which you need to know." Adam took a long, lingering look at Henry. "Why does it matter? Wouldn't you want to tell her anyways, the truth about you and me, even if I hadn't come by to see you today? So here's what you're going to do, Henry. You're going to march downstairs in about... oh, three minutes or so, and tell Jo everything about the two hundred years you've been alive. Everything. Except for me, of course... I'd like to keep our phone calls a secret. I'll be listening to your whole conversation... if you tell Jo about me or our little meeting tonight... _Boom!_ " Adam motioned with his hands on the final word.

Henry's mind was running at a hundred miles an hour. Adam only wanted him to tell Jo his secret? _Why? _And...

"But... what if..."

"What if Jo doesn't believe what you're saying? What if Jo doesn't trust you anymore? Or worst of all, what if you scare her off and she never wants to talk with you again?"

Henry nodded.

"Well, that's the whole point, Henry! Revealing the secret of immortality shows, in the end, who's really your friend or not. Who really trusts you or not. Who really loves you... or not. How many people have you revealed your secret to in your relatively short existence? Five, six? How many of them still trusted you, still stuck around afterwards? Half of them, maybe? It's the ultimate test, Henry. Let's see if your partner passes."

"Adam, please don't make me do this..." Henry was almost begging at this point.

Adam just smiled and picked up his gun, once again pointing it at Henry.

In the past few minutes, Adam had came to many realizations. Adam was pleased that his plan had worked, happy that Henry would now be forced to reveal his secret to Jo, and absolutely gleeful about how scared and troubled Henry looked right now.

Henry had also realized a few things in the past few minutes; he was upset that he had fallen right into Adam's trap, fearful about revealing his secret to Jo, and, at the moment, he noticed that he was, deep-down, completely terrified.

The one thing Adam and Henry both failed to notice, though, was the third figure that had appeared on the video stream just a few moments after Adam had turned the laptop back around.

.

.

_A three and a half minutes ago_

"Did you hear that?" Jo asked Abe, who was sitting next to her in his old-fashioned armchair that was probably from the 1800s. She shifted her weight so that she was sitting straighter up. As Abe got up and put his tea on the table, he also heard a faint noise coming from above them.

"It sounds like... " Jo said.

"Someone's knocking on the door?" Finished Abe.

Abe looked at Jo, and Jo looked at Abe. Apparently neither of them were expecting anyone to stop by at Abe's store tonight.

Even more surprising, next they heard someone entering the store and walking down the stairs.

_Who is that? _Jo mouthed to Abe. Abe shook his head, clearly just as confused as she was. They both turned around to see a pair of brown boots coming down the stairs, a pair of worn jeans, and then a light blue shirt...

"Oh, hey guys. I didn't know you'd be down here." Said Lucas.

"Lucas... how'd you get inside the store?" Abe asked him.

"Oh, Henry gave me a key in case I needed to bring something to him in an emergency. So, what are you two doing down here? Just chilling out? You know, I also like to drink tea and talk, I would be glad to hang out with you guys sometime..."

"So why are you here, Lucas? Did Henry ask you to bring him something?" Said Abe.

"Ah, no, not exactly, you see, I just dropped by to talk to Henry about the Runner case, since I didn't get a chance to talk to him before he left work today. When I got here, the door to the shop was locked. I tried to call your home phone first, but it was busy, so I just let myself in." Lucas said sheepishly.

At that moment, Jo sensed something was amiss. "Wait, but weren't you just talking to him? Henry said he got a call from you just ten minutes ago."

Lucas looked surprised. "A call, from me? I haven't talked to Henry since before he left with you, around three. I asked him if he wanted to go grab some dinner after you guys were finished, but he turned me down..."

"So the call Henry got ten minutes ago wasn't from you?" Jo questioned him.

"No, not from me. Why, did he say it was?" Lucas asked.

"I picked up the phone first and assumed it was Lucas when Henry told me it was. I've never actually heard your voice before, so I couldn't tell the difference at the time, but it sounds a lot different than the voice on the phone." Said Abe.

Jo's mind was racing. "He said he got a call from 'Lucas at work' with a question about something. Are there any other people named Lucas in the lab?"

Lucas shook his head. "No, I'm pretty proud of the fact that I'm the only Lucas in the whole division, so that can't be it."

"So Henry got a phone call ten minutes ago that made him uncomfortable, and then lied about who it was." She looked over at Abe, whose faced looked pale. "Abe, do you know what's going on?"

Abe looked at Jo for a few long seconds. No one spoke. Finally, he sighed slightly and leaned back in his chair, looking a little exasperated. "Henry started getting phone calls from a guy named Adam about six months ago... Adam was, well, kind of stalking him." Abe looked at the shocked expression on Jo's face. "He didn't want me to tell anyone, and I thought it had stopped a few months ago. He never told me otherwise..."

Jo looked stunned, and Lucas just stared. "Wait, so Henry used _me_ as an excuse to take a phone call from his stalker?"

"I'm not sure, it could be nothing..." Abe told them, not quite sure of himself.

But Jo could feel something was very wrong about this situation. "Something's not right. We need to go check on him, now. Come on, Lucas, you can back me up."

Lucas nodded. "Uh, alright... "

Jo didn't hear him; she was already heading up the stairs.

.

.

Jo and Lucas had reached the ground floor of Abe's Antiques. At this point, Jo had slowed down and began to creep up the stairs. Lucas followed her, trying to copy her silent movements (and, for the most part, utterly failing, but neither of them seemed to notice).

"What do we do?" Lucas whispered to Jo, who was standing on the bottom step of the second staircase, straining her ears.

"I'm not sure, I'm trying to hear-"

_"Adam, please don't make me do this..."_

The moment Jo heard Henry's voice confirming her worst fears, she practically flew into action.

She pulled her gun from her hip holster and took off up the stairs, forgetting about trying to stay silent. Lucas, after a second of shock, was also spurred into action and followed Jo as she ran up the steps, taking them two at a time.

Henry and Adam turned around in astonishment as she burst into the room.

Jo's detective mind worked fast. The second she entered the room, she had already begun to analyze the situation.

_Two men in the room, one of them is Henry, the other Henry called 'Adam', the stalker Abe mentioned. Possibly dangerous. Henry's holding a gun, it's pointing at Adam. Adam has a gun, his other hand is in his pocket. Possibly a concealed weapon, a knife? Adam's gun is pointed at Henry. His gun is pointed at Henry. His face looks surprised by me, his trigger finger is twitching... his gun is pointing at Henry..._

Jo pulled the trigger, an echo of a gunshot quickly filling the small room.

Adam slumped over, his hand clutching his leg as he fell.

Henry was about to let out a sigh of relief when he saw something slide out of Adam's hand.

"No!" Henry dived for the dead man's detonator, but it had already left Adam's grip. He caught it before it hit the floor, but it was too late, the fiery blast would hit them any moment now. He turned to look at Jo, who was still staring at the man she had just shot. He closed his eyes.

.

.

Five seconds later, when no blast had come, he turned to look at Adam, who was lying on the floor, watching them and trying to conceal the pain coming from his bullet wound. Adam looked at Henry for a moment before slowly getting up, attempting to stand even though large amounts of his blood had already fallen on the floor. He sighed, wincing. "It's a fake, Henry. A fake." Adam said softly.

Henry, looking astonished, glanced at the detonator in his hand, or what he had thought was a detonator. Now that Adam mentioned it, it was too light, and looked slightly like an old fashioned video game controller...

Jo was at Henry's side before he noticed she was there. "Henry, are you alright? What were you thinking, coming up here alone and confronting someone you knew might be dangerous?" Although all her attention was focused on Henry, she kept her gun trained on Adam, who had settled with sitting on Henry's bed and grimacing in pain while blood flowed from his wound.

"He threatened me, Jo. He said he had a bomb that would blow up the whole block if I tipped one of you off..." Henry's words started loudly, but got softer as he realized that, thankfully, somehow, Jo had managed to figure out that he was in danger (like she always did).

Jo didn't know what to say about that, so she let the subject drop for the moment.

"But you're ok, right? He didn't hurt you?"

Henry actually smiled. "Yes, Jo, I am quite alright, thanks to your heroics."

"Um, you guys..." Lucas said, standing just inside the doorway. "Shouldn't we, you know, talk about this later and deal with- him?" He said, motioning to Adam on the bed. Henry looked at him with surprise on his face, like he hadn't noticed him standing there before.

"Ok, Henry, I'll need your and Lucas's help attending to his leg. Stop the bleeding and get him bandaged up with something. The police should be here with an ambulance in less than five minutes because of the gunshot." She kept her gun trained on Adam as she turned around to face him. "Adam, or whatever the heck your name is, you are now in the custody of the New York-"

Jo's words cut off suddenly as she really looked at Adam's face for the first time.

"Hello, Jo."

She inhaled a sharp breath.

Her eyes looked him up and down.

Adam looked up at her.

The gun dropped from her hand.

"H-ho-how...? Is.. is... is that...? How- how is... is..." Jo whispered, looking frantic.

Adam sighed. "I was wondering how long it would take you to notice me, Jo." He looked over at Henry, who was looking at Jo, waiting for her to say something.

"Oh my god... Is that-is that you? Is that really you?" Jo slowly took a step towards Adam.

Henry looked back and forth from the shell-shocked Jo to the grimacing Adam. "Do you... do you two know each other?"

"Hen-Henry, that's... it's ... it's Peter, oh my god... Peter, how? H-how, Peter? Y-you..." Her voice faltered.

The name Peter wrung a bell in Henry's head, but he couldn't place where he had heard it from. "Jo, is that... Adam's real name? How do you know him?"

"Oh my god, Peter, you were, you were dead... Henry, it's Peter, he's alive... how is he alive?..."

Jo's hand went up to her throat, where she clasped the ring that had always hung from a silver chain around her neck.

The ring...

Henry realized who Peter was.

He turned to face Adam, half in shock and half in anger. "Adam, are you... were you?"

"Yeah, I was Peter, Jo's' 'dead' husband." He had given up trying to stay sitting and was now lying down on the bed, trying to stop the blood flow from the bullet wound with his hands.

"Oh my god, Peter, h-how, I can't, I-I don't understand, Peter...how? How?" Jo looked like she was about to go into shock. Henry walked over to her and grabbed her shoulders to make sure that she didn't fall over, but Jo didn't even notice him there.

"Jo... I really didn't want you to see me here today, I took _all_ the precautions..." Adam sighed. "Well, it's no matter, things would have eventually turned out like this anyways..." He grimaced and shifted his head so that he was looking up at Jo. "Jo, after I'm gone, ask Henry to explain the whole situation to you. He knows everything."

Jo turned around and looked at Henry in surprise for a second, but Henry didn't notice. He had turned his attention to Adam's shaking form on the bed. "We need to patch up the bullet wound, otherwise he'll bleed out in about three minutes." He looked at Lucas, who was still standing in the doorway, shocked. "Lucas, hold this blanket over the wound and I'll find something to bandage it with." Lucas quickly walked over to where Henry was standing and applied a thin, green throw blanket to the wound. It started turning a deep crimson color within seconds. Henry's mind was working fast, back from his many years of training as a doctor in both hospitals and warzones. "Jo was right; It's likely the police will be here in a few minutes because of the gunshot. Until then, we have to keep the wound-"

"I know what you're th-thinking, Henry," Adam said, interrupting him, almost gasping in pain every word. "You're trying to f-figure out a way to avoid telling Jo, and I can't let that h-happen. She d-deserves to know."

Adam smiled ever so slightly. During their first meeting tonight, Henry had decided that Adam had the most sinister, grim smile he had ever seen, and even after taking a bullet to the leg, Henry noticed that it still looked just as creepy.

"It's the ultimate test, Henry. _The ultimate test."_

Adam quickly swung his hurt leg around and kicked Lucas away from him and back into Henry's dresser. With a surprising amount of strength for a man who had been shot a few minutes ago, he sat up and pulled another gun out from under his jacket. Henry recognized it as an old, antique revolver from the 1800s, but that thought quickly drifted from his mind as he turned his arm and pointed the gun at Lucas.

"Nobody move!" He yelled, his voice strong and powerful once again. Jo actually fell back onto the floor, looking like tears were going to start streaming down her face at any moment.

Adam slowly, nursing his leg, got up from the bed, keeping his revolver trained on Lucas the whole time. The room was silent as he took a step, and then another step, towards the corner of Henry's bedroom. Henry, Jo, and Lucas trained their eyes on him, but no one risked moving. Adam stopped to rest his hand on a windowsill and took a few, deep breaths of air.

"Adam, what are you-" Henry started to say, but Adam cut him off.

"I'm making sure... making sure that Jo sees." He turned to face Jo and mouthed _"I'm sorry"_ to her.

Jo stared up at him from across the room, so many emotions in her eyes.

Suddenly, before Henry had really noticed what was going on, Adam had dropped the revolver and spun around. He grabbed onto the top of the window sill with both hands and launched himself into the air, kicking the glass of Henry's window out to make it shatter. Then, without taking another look back at any of the three, he dived head-first through the window frame.

Jo was the first one to make it to the window, Lucas the second. By the time Henry's mind had finally processed the whole situation and he too had run to the window, Adam had already hit the ground two stories below. Jo screamed when she saw him in the dirty alley beneath them, but Henry expected that what would happen in the next few seconds would shock them into silence.

When Henry had originally picked out his room, he thought it was almost perfect. The one thing that had always bugged him about it, though, was its lack of a nice view; the one and only window in his room faced out into a dirty alley and the brick building across from it. It had bugged him for years. For the first time ever, though, he appreciated the fact that his window overlooked an old, always empty alley; no one else would have seen Adam fall, and no one else would see what was going to happen next.

In a blink of an eye, Adam's body disappeared, and no trace of anything to indicate he was ever there was left in the alley below.

Henry turned towards his friends and watched their reactions as their minds struggled to comprehend what they had just observed. Jo's face was a wash of emotions: bewilderment, pain, surprise, wonder, and puzzlement. Lucas, on the other hand, just looked stunned.

Henry heard a knock; he turned around to see Abe standing in the doorway. "Hey, I came as soon as I heard the gunshot. It's not my fault I'm old." He smiled, but it faltered after a second when he noticed the looks on Jo and Lucas's faces. "Oh, did they-?"

Henry only had to nod, and Abe understood.

"I'm going to head downstairs. When the cops show up, I'll tell them that one of my new antique guns discharged by accident because I didn't know it was loaded." He nodded and turned to leave the room, but as he was heading out, he glanced back at Henry again. "You don't need my help... explaining to them, do you?"

Henry shook his head and smiled at his son. "Thanks, but... you need to wait for the police downstairs. I'll handle them."

Abe nodded once and disappeared around the corner. Henry turned to face Jo and Lucas; Jo had settled down on the edge of Henry's bed while Lucas was still staring out the window. Henry slowly lowered himself onto the bed next to Jo, who had taken off the necklace from around her neck and was now staring at the ring attached to it. After a few moments, she inhaled a deep, shaky breath and turned to face him.

"Henry, I..." Her words were shaky, full of pain and confusion. "My 'dead' husband was... was just in your room. My dead husband... was stalking you, Henry, stalking you!" She gasped, trying to stop herself from hyperventilating. "My dead husband showed up in your room, threatened you, pointed a gun at you!..." She gulped again. "I-I... I shot my husband, Henry, I shot my dead husband! I shot him... and he didn't even bat an eye, and he jumped out of a w-window, and... disappeared! Disappeared..."

Jo was shaking now, and Henry steadily held her shoulders. Lucas had turned to watch them, and for the first time ever, didn't have a single word to say.

"Henry... my dead husband just came back to life and disappeared." Jo turned to look at Henry, gazing into his eyes. "Do you know... he said you knew... what's going on, Henry? Tell me w-what's going on..."

Henry looked between the two of them: Lucas, a trusted friend, and Jo, his partner and his best companion. He knew that, if he told them his secret, neither of them would ever reveal it to anyone else, certainly not after today. Telling both of them would open up a whole new world that not even Henry quite knew how to navigate, but after today, he didn't really have much of a choice. Even though Adam was the one who had died today, he would still get exactly what he wanted in the end, what he had wanted Henry to do in the first place. Both Jo and Lucas knew too much now; it would be impossible to make up an excuse or go on with life and pretend like none of the last twenty minutes had ever happened.

Twenty minutes, what a short time for all of this to happen. In reality it had felt like a couple of hours, and Henry laughed inwardly. Apparently, twenty minutes was all it took to completely change your life.

Jo looked at Henry, waiting for an answer.

_"It's the ultimate test, Henry."_ Adam had said. _The ultimate test._

Henry looked at Jo and Lucas and, without a doubt in his mind, knew that both of them would pass.

Henry started from the beginning, and he told them everything.

.

.

_They passed. _

_._

_._

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>I sincerely hope you enjoyed this story. It was originally supposed to be less than 1,000 words... it ended up totaling 2 weeks of writing and almost 6,000 words, haha. I guess that's just how things turn out sometimes. It gave me the greatest joy to write this for you all. I have read all 52 of the stories currently under the Forever page, and I just wanted to take this chance to thank you all for giving me many great stories to read. I figured this would be a fun way to give back to this wonderful community.

I've had this theory since the show's pilot that Adam was Jo's husband who 'died'. Jo's husband has not yet been named, yet he has been referenced multiple times, once every few episodes. It makes sense, right? Jo was the first person Adam had loved in a long time, but he was forced to fake his death eventually to keep his secret hidden. Poor Adam... Jo didn't recognize him at first because it had been two years and she just didn't expect to see him there.

This is why Adam had taken such an interest in Henry; when he discovered that another immortal was getting close to Jo, he started keeping close tabs on Henry.

I took the liberty of giving Adam the pseudonym of Peter since Jo's dead husband's official name has not yet been revealed.

Every time this story gets a favorite, a kitten is born, and every time this story gets a review, Henry and Jo go out for coffee. (I'm just kidding, but each and every one of your favorites and reviews bring me a deep joyous feeling. So if you liked the story... *hint hint*)

Here sits thy disclaimer: The characters in this story are from _Forever_ and I do not own them, however, the idea for the plot is original and mine.


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